“O love the Lord, all
you His godly ones! The Lord preservers the faithful and fully recompenses the
proud doer. Be strong and let our heart
take courage, all you who hope in the Lord” (Psa. 31:23-24).
Hey Gang: It was advertised that the devil was going to put
his tools up for sale. On the date of
the sale the tools were placed for public inspection, each being marked with
its sale price. There was a treacherous
lot of implements- hatred, envy, jealousy, doubt, lying, pride and so on. But there was one that was set aside from the
rest. It was a harmless looking tool, very well worn and priced very high.
“What is the name of that tool?” Asked one of the
bidders. “Oh,” said the adversary, “that
is “discouragement”. “Why is it priced
so high”?” asked the bidder. “Because it
is the most powerful tool in my toolbox” was his reply.
“I can pry open and get inside a person’s heart with that
one, when all others fail. Now, once I
get inside, I can make him do what I choose.
It’s a badly worn tool, because I use it on almost everyone, since few people
know it belongs to me.”
The devil’s price for discouragement was so high, he never
found a bidder who was willing to pay his price. It remains, even this day, as his major tool
and has found growing in effectiveness now that “Everything that can be shaken
is being shaken.”
Have you ever been discouraged? Perhaps I should ask, “Are you dealing with
discouragement in your life today.” In
my tenure as exalted ruler of the Village with two hundred young folks who had
a habit of making bad decisions, herding a staff of more than one hundred
employees, and keeping them from being discouraged and making sure there were
sufficient vittles in the pantry to feed the multitude, I often found myself
dealing with discouragement.
Over the years I learned it was essential for my spiritual
life that I, too, have a tool box filled with God’s antidotes against the poison of discouragement. The first tool from the Master Tool Maker is God’s Word. Throughout the Word we find the “I will” promises of God. Tool one is to know we have the assurance
that God gave His only begotten Son to come to earth and walk in my shoes, and offer
His life, to save me from the penalty of
my sins. I must make sure that I know
Him intimately, not just to know about Him.
The second tool is the
assurances I have as a believer in Christ Jesus. I have placed Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong
and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God,
he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee’, and Hebrews 13;5 “For He has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you”.
My third antidote against
Satan’s dart of discouragement is found in Isaiah 41:10: “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I
am your God. I will strengthen you,
surely I will help you. Surely I will
uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Wow, is it not awesome to know, without doubt, that the Creator of this
universe takes the time to be with His children and never, never forsake them?
There are many verses spread
throughout God’s Word that give me those same assurances, but I must be
connected to His power supply. We might
want to rephrase Isaiah 41:10:“I do not fear for You are with me. I am not anxious for you are my God. I praise you Lord for the promise that you
will be there when I need help and that you will up hold me with your mighty
right hand”.
I close this epistle with a challenge from the
depth of my heart. There is so much I
would like to say to you from my sojourn on this earth with God, and even before
when outside of His grace, but three pages a week does not give one much time
to share what is truly in my heart.
I challenge you to diligently get into God’s
Word, even if you have to get up fifteen minutes earlier each day and be in
continual prayer. It is not good sense
to jeopardize others by talking on our cell phones when driving, but there is
no law that says “We cannot talk to God”.
Blessings,
Gramps
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